CAIRO: An ongoing feud over the presidency of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party between Secretary General Ahmed Hassan and first Vice President Sameh Ashour has left the party's fate hanging in the balance. The tension began once the party's president, Diaa Eddine Dawood, resigned due to health problems, raising anxieties that the party's activities may come to a complete standstill. Hassan called for a general secretariat meeting on Friday in which he decided to freeze the membership of Ashour in addition to a number of the party's leaders, including Vice President Mohammed Abo El-Ela and Assistant Secretary General Tawheed El-Banhawy. Hassan sent a memo on Saturday to the Shoura Council's Political Parties Committee calling for a freeze of Ashour's membership and they he no longer be acknowledged as the party's vice president. Ashour also presented an official memo on Saturday to the Political Parties Committee which called for the cancellation of the party's parliamentarian committee in the council — which includes the membership of both Hassan and Secretariat member Mohsen Attiya — in compliance with decisions taken by the party's general conference on Friday. When Dawood stepped down, he authorized Ashour to take over the party's leadership until a new president is elected. Ashour called for a general meeting on Friday night in which Dawood's decision was accepted. As a result of the meeting, Ashour was named the party's interim president, El-Banhawy was designated to be the Secretary of Organization, and Dawood was named a lifetime Honorary President of the party. In his Secretariat meeting, Hassan urged party members not to attend Ashour's meeting, describing it as institutionally illegitimate. Those who attended the Secretariat meeting decided to form a committee that includes Hassan, Media Secretary Magdy Bassiouny, Political Office Member Mahmoud Magar, Political Affairs Secretary Mohammed Sayed Ahmed, and Youth Secretary Ali Zarzour in order to take any necessary action that may have resulted from Ashour's meeting. “We presented an official memo on Saturday to the Political Parties Committee at the Shoura Council [to provide] the results of the conference [as well as to submit all the] supporting documents to prove the meeting's legitimacy,” Ashour told Daily News Egypt. “The General Assembly is the party's top authority, the decisions of which surpass the decisions of any other party authority,” Ashour added. “[Therefore], the decisions taken by the general secretariat are illegitimate.” In response to concerns that the party might be frozen, Ashour said it was “not going to happen because [the general] meeting is legitimate and no appeals can be made against it. This is in addition to the party's legitimate President [Dawood]'s decision to authorize me as [an interim] president.” Hassan, however, stated that Ashour's general meeting was “illegitimate.” “The way the meeting was called for was illegitimate, in addition to the [acquisition of] signatures of members who did not attend the meeting at all,” Hassan told Daily News Egypt. “The General Secretariat decided to hold the party's General Assembly meeting on April 14 and 15, while elections will be held in January.” Hassan indicated that there are two ways to call for a General Assembly meeting: One way is by calling for a meeting through the party's Central Committee and General Secretariat, and the other way is by a call for a meeting that is supported by at least one third of the party's members in order to discuss any important issues or concerns. “The authorization that Ashour has from the [former party] president is meaningless because [Ashour's] membership is frozen … [the party membership freeze] deprives him from practicing any party-related activity,” said Hassan. The Arab Democratic Nasserist Party was formed in 1992. Although it did not win any seats during the last parliamentary elections, it is considered to be one of Egypt's most well-known opposition parties. The party itself bases most of its political ideologies on the political philosophies espoused by former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
